It was just that merry special time of year, the Global Game Jam time of year. The theme was “repair” and me and my best programmer buddy Andrew made “Mind Repair Solutions’.No idea why the site added the number ‘5’ to the URL since I’m certain we are the only game with that name. The resulting game should show how much fun we had! We made this not by pulling all nighters but instead summoning years of consistent hard work and experience in art and code.

I love getting making every piece of art in a game. Whether it’s logos, icons, character animation or backgrounds; being a solo artist for a game you are able to make all the little elements tie together. To me’World building’ isn’t wasting time writing a 6 page game bible pontificating on things you aren’t actually creating. It’s all about brainstorming visually, making solid decisions and just bloody making it. For the clinic staff we named Clara, I attempted speed cell shading in Tvpaint. Although it’s impossible to do good hand-drawn animation fast, TVpaint 11 has a way of making Color layers respond whatever you draw on lineart layer above so you can edit and fix colorable areas super easy.

TVpaint cell shading process!

I had zero experience using Godot Engine before this jam. My teammate Andrew only had a little bit of practice beforehand. We both value letting ideas flow between us therefore atmosphere, visuals and humor take shape in a natural way. I love Global Gam Jam because I learn so much about managing a production, communicating with teammate(s), realizing where my strengths and weaknesses lie. My artistic spirit, often chained down by storyboarding, goes wild when I get to be the sole artist on anything.

I was nit picking over my portfolio and found some work from when I was at a small game company late last year. The game went through….a rough patch and was never finished so whatever, here is some stuff from Paddle Panda.

I was in the artist alley at Oz Comic Con Adelaide last weekend. This was the first time we have shown our game jam game to the masses of Adelaide, and the reactions were priceless. It’s definitely motivated us to continue working on the game to get it to a ‘finished’ stage. Some of the highlights of the con include:

the kid who was pulled away by his mom because he was too into our game.

the kid who yelled ‘BUT I HAVE TO SAVE THE KOALAS’ after siblings pulled him away

just the reaction people have when playing our game in general.

Here is a photo of my humble setup, after I had sold out of one print and had to take it off my backboard. It had been awhile since I last did a convention, I had even forgotten how to make a badge for a moment. Asides from a few awkward mistakes making change (hey I have an artists’ brain ok), the whole convention went rather smoothly (mostly thanks to my friend and handy helper Andrew).
I realised that I finally used up all my clear sealable tiny bags for sticker and badges. I had bought a 1000 of them in a pack a few years ago. So yes, that means I’ve served 1000 people since around 2013! (more or less, since there’s also a lot of loyal repeat customers in there) Kinda amazing to think about. Once again thanks to everyone who bought something from me or played our game. It helps me keep making art and more cool things. Hopefully we’ll be doing Oz Comic Con again next year!

I participated in the Global Game Jam held at the AIE here in humble ol’ Adelaide last weekend. The theme was ‘ritual’ and I worked in a team with 3 super talented programmers, all of which I met at the mixer only hours before the jam. It was an amazing experience to say the least. We crafted a RPG of 9 levels with enemies that attack you, healing items and two alternate endings, all in under 48 hours! I hadn’t done pixel art in years, not since I used to own a copy of paint when I was 10 but I had a ridiculous amount of fun crafting pixel sprites for level tiles and objects. I think level design is my new addiction.
Our team won the ‘Best Art’ award and we are all determined to continue working on the game. I would say more about what I learnt from the experience and yada yada, but I think a successful game jam depends on having dedicated and awesome team. You can download the awesome game we submitted right here and follow us on itch.io for news. Over and out!